The Loop (55 page)

He and Clyde were leading in Clyde’s truck, with one of the loggers sitting wedged between them to make sure they didn’t get lost. He was one of the guys who’d come up here with Clyde last night to lay that damn fool loop thing. They should have just stuffed some poison down the hole or poured gasoline in it or something. Anyhow, they’d put that right when they got there now.

Buck’s anger had refined itself. Shooting those two wolves, he was so fired up he’d hardly known what he was doing. It was like something bursting into flames in his head, an explosion of all the pressure that had been building inside him, months of being slighted, rejected and thwarted. But now the smoke had cleared and his anger glowed white-hot within him like a branding iron, searing and still.

‘Hey, look,’ Clyde said. He was peering up ahead. ‘There’s somebody already got here.’

They were coming around the last bend and the road was leveling out. A couple of hundred yards ahead of them, there was someone with a flashlight. Then, in the headlights, they saw trees had been felled across the road and a truck parked behind them.

‘What the . . .?’ Clyde said. ‘It’s the wolf woman. Who the hell’s that with her?’

Buck had already seen who it was. And now Clyde recognized her too. He looked at Buck.

‘What’s Eleanor doing here, for Christsakes?’

Buck didn’t answer. She must have gone and told Helen Ross what was happening. His own damned wife.

‘Stop here,’ he said.

They stopped about fifteen yards short of the roadblock and as they did, Helen Ross stepped over the trees and came toward them, shielding her eyes against Clyde’s headlights. Buck got out and walked slowly around to the front of the car. He stood with his back to the hood, waiting for her. All the other men were piling out of their trucks and coming up behind him to see what was going on. Abe Harding’s dogs were barking their heads off.

‘Hello, Mr Calder.’

He just stared at her. He could tell the little bitch was scared.

‘I’m afraid, sir, this road has been closed.’

‘Uh-huh? On whose authority?’

‘The US Fish and Wildlife Service.’

‘This is a public road.’

‘I know that, sir.’

Eleanor was coming up behind her now. No doubt thinking she could make a monkey of him in front of everyone. He didn’t look at her.

‘Craig?’ he called out, keeping his eyes on Helen Ross. ‘Is Craig there?’

‘Yeah!’ Craig Rawlinson pushed his way through the crowd.

‘Buck?’ Eleanor said. He ignored her.

‘Sheriff Rawlinson. Does this woman have the authority to close a public road?’

‘Not unless she’s got a piece of paper to prove it, she hasn’t.’

‘Buck,’ Eleanor said again. ‘Please. It’s time to stop.’

‘Stop?’ He laughed. ‘Honey, I haven’t even gotten started.’ The Ross woman turned to Craig Rawlinson.

‘I can’t believe you’re going to help these men commit a crime.’

‘You’re the only one who’s committing a crime around here, far as I can see. You’re obstructing a public highway.’

Ross pointed at Buck. ‘This man has just shot two wolves . . .’ Everyone laughed ‘. . . You should be arresting him, not helping him kill more.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now turn around and get your truck out the way or I’ll arrest you.’

He reached out to take her by the shoulder, but she lashed out and gave him a shove in the chest that made him stagger back. One of the loggers cheered sarcastically.

‘Feisty little thing, ain’t she?’ Wes Harding called out.

Everyone laughed again.

‘Why don’t you all just grow up?’ Helen shouted.

Eleanor stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

‘What’s the matter with all you boys?’ Eleanor said. ‘I’ve known some of you since you were kids. I know your mothers. I think you’d all be better just going home.’

The sound of her voice, the calm reasoning tone, made Buck’s blood seethe.

‘Will someone shut those damn dogs up? Clyde?’

‘Yessir?’

‘Get those fucking trees off the road.’

 

Luke had tried for ten minutes to get the hooks out of the pup’s mouth, but all three barbs were deeply bedded in and he couldn’t loosen them without doing more damage. He managed to get all the meat out of the poor little thing’s throat so it didn’t choke, but that was all. In the end, he knew it was going to bleed to death and if he wasted anymore time, maybe all the others would be lost as well, so he put it back on the ground where he’d found it, attached to the line like a drowning fish.

All the while, the mother wolf had been barking and howling at him from across the clearcut, pacing up and down, thinking no doubt that he was murdering her pup. He could even hear her now that he was down in the den.

He was inching along the tunnel on his belly, pointing the flashlight ahead of him. It was narrower than the one he and Helen had gone down last summer and it seemed longer too, with bends where the digger had come up against rock. There was a faint smell of ammonia and the farther he went, the stronger it got. He guessed it was from the pee of the pups and that he must now be getting near to the nesting chamber.

He held the jabstick out in front of him, in the beam of the flashlight, just in case the mother came in through the other entrance below the rocks. He had no idea how many pups he would find. Helen said there could sometimes be as many as nine or ten.

Then suddenly he heard them whining and a moment later, as he slithered around the final bend, he saw them in the beam of the flashlight. They were in a dark furry huddle at the far corner of the chamber, squinting and mewing at the light. He couldn’t tell how many there were. Five or six at most.

‘Hey, there,’ he said softly. ‘It’s okay. Everyone’s going to be okay.’

He put down the jabstick and the flashlight and pulled out the canvas bag that he’d stuffed down the front of his shirt. He opened it up and elbowed his way toward the pups. There were five of them and he wondered if he could take them all in one go. But the tunnel was narrow and he didn’t want to risk hurting any of them. He decided to take three first, then come back for the other two.

He reached out and plucked up the first one. Its fur was soft and all fluffed up. It mewed at him.

‘I know, I know. I’m sorry.’

 

‘Move your truck,’ Buck Calder said.

‘No.’>

Helen stood facing him, with her arms folded, trying to look tough and official. Her head came about halfway up his chest. She could feel her knees going wobbly. She had her back to the driver’s door and was wishing she’d locked it before hiding the key. She’d lost all track of time. All she knew was that Luke would need longer than he’d had to get the pups out.

Eleanor had given up on her husband and was now trying to make her son-in-law see reason while he supervised the removal of the second tree. The first had already been towed off the road by the Harding boys. Hicks stood there, shaking his head, not looking at her.

‘Hey bitch!’ someone yelled. ‘Move your fucking truck!’

Helen glanced at him and saw it was her bearded friend from outside the courthouse. He and some of his buddies had guns out now and others had broken off branches and were busy wrapping rags around them and dowsing them with kerosene.

‘Hey! That’s great, guys,’ Helen said. ‘Are we going to set a cross on fire too?’

‘You offering to be on it?’

‘Craig!’ Buck called. ‘Does this truck constitute an obstruction? ’

‘It certainly does.’

Buck turned back to her.

‘Are you going to move it?’

‘No.’>

He looked over her shoulder into the pickup.

‘Give me the keys.’

He held out his hand and Helen only just resisted the urge to spit in it. Over his shoulder she could see Eleanor talking to Abe Harding, telling him he was already in enough trouble as it was and would end up going to jail for a long time. He wasn’t listening. The second tree was being dragged away behind his sons’ truck, in the back of which the two dogs were tethered, still hollering.

The torches were being lit.

Buck Calder tried to reach around her for the door handle, but Helen moved back to block him. She suddenly remembered the last time he’d had her backed up against her truck and he seemed to remember it too, for he edged away a little, out of range of her knee.

‘Clyde? Get a rope on this thing.’ He walked away.

‘On her or the pickup?’ Ethan Harding called out.

They all laughed. Someone handed Hicks a rope and he started to walk toward the pickup. Helen turned and wrenched open the door. She reached behind the seat and pulled out Luke’s rifle.

She pointed it at Hicks and cocked it. He stopped in his tracks and everything went quiet. Buck Calder had his back to her and, slowly now, he turned and saw the gun. Helen swallowed hard.

‘Go home. All of you.’

Everyone stood frozen, staring at her. For the first time, Eleanor looked frightened. Calder was frowning at the gun and as he stepped toward her she swung the barrel so it was pointing at him instead. He faltered. But he kept on coming.

‘Where did you get that?’

Helen didn’t answer. She was breathing too fast and knew her voice would show, if it wasn’t already obvious, how scared she was. He walked right up to her, until the barrel was an inch from his heart.

‘You dare,’ he whispered. ‘You
dare
point my own dead son’s gun at me?’

And he closed his hand over the barrel and took it from her.

 

The mother wolf was right at the mouth of the den when he came out with the first bagload of pups and he thought for a moment that she was going to attack him. She backed away, barking and snarling at him, showing her teeth and gums. Luke yelled and swung the jabstick at her and only then did she run off.

But she was still only twenty yards or so away, still barking and Luke worried that if he left the first bag of pups outside the den she might come and carry it off while he was down getting the others. Maybe, to be safe, he should take the first lot to the Jeep. But he probably didn’t have time and anyway, she might nip into the den while he was gone and make off with the others.

He wedged the whimpering bag of pups into a crevice between the rocks and then hunted around for smaller rocks to stack in front of it. It wouldn’t stop her getting at them, but it might buy him enough time. All the while he was doing this, he tried to block his ears to the screams of the pup who was hooked to the wire which, he now discovered, stretched in a wide circle all around the den.

What kind of mind, he wondered, could ever have devised such a thing?

In the end, he couldn’t bear the screaming any longer. And although he knew he shouldn’t waste precious time, he had to have another go at getting the hook out of the pup’s mouth, while its mother ran around him in demented circles. But still he couldn’t get it out.

Then the mother stopped hollering and Luke heard another sound. A first distant rumble of engines and a dog barking. And looking up the clearcut, he saw headlights pan the sky.

He put the pup down, grabbed the flashlight and the empty bag and dived back down into the den.

 

The cars and trucks all pulled up in a line along the top of the clearcut and everyone climbed out. Most of them had guns and those who didn’t were holding flashlights or flaming torches. Abe had his dogs on leashes now. They were barking more crazily than ever.

Buck stood by Clyde’s truck with Henry’s gun in his hands. His blood was still simmering at the sight of that little whore-bitch pointing it at him. He felt like smashing her cute little bunny-hugger face in. It was just as well Craig Rawlinson had been there to take her aside while they shunted her shit-heap of a truck off the road. He’d felt pretty much the same about Eleanor, siding up with the bitch against her own husband like that. It was unbelievable.

Tactfully, Rawlinson had said he’d stay down there with the two of them. Buck knew he’d then be able to plead ignorance about what they were all about to do.

‘So, where is it?’ he said.

Clyde pointed down the clearcut.

‘Plumb in the middle there. Couple of hundred yards down. See the rocks?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Den’s right under there.’

‘Look!’ Wes Harding yelled. ‘There’s one right there!’

He was pointing toward the edge of the clearcut. Every flashlight they had was at once pointed the same way. Few of the beams could reach that far, but enough could for them to see a white wolf, brazen as day, standing there staring right back at them. And as they looked, she had the nerve to start howling at them.

Buck was just lifting his rifle when three or four others beat him to it and a volley of shots rang out.

How many hit her, it was impossible to tell, but it was enough to lift her clean off her feet. She was dead before she landed.

‘Listen up!’ Buck called out. ‘I’ve got a job to finish here. I’ve killed me two of these critters today and if anyone’s going to jail it’s me, okay? If another one shows, it’s mine. You all understand?’

There was mumbled agreement.

‘Abe and me are going to be cellmates. Ain’t that right, Abe?’

Abe didn’t smile.

‘Okay. Got the shovels and the gasoline?’

The loggers called out to confirm that they had.

‘Then let’s go.’

It wasn’t as easy a walk as it looked. There were felled trees that they had to climb across and stumps and root holes to snag their feet. Buck let Clyde lead the way with the flashlight. He kept the safety catch of Henry’s rifle off and his eyes locked on the den. He wasn’t going to have one of these drunken jerks beating him again if another wolf showed its face.

They were about halfway down the clearcut now and he could see the black hole of the den showing clearly in the pale moonlit earth. Suddenly he saw its shape alter. It was another wolf. He didn’t want to yell because he knew, despite what he’d told them, all the others would take a shot.